The field of art to which this invention pertains is a gate valve having a reciprocating gate assembly of the expanding type which expands outwardly at the open and closed positions of the gate assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,823,911 dated July 16, 1974 is directed to a gate valve of the expanding type and has spacers between floating seat elements to maintain a predetermined minimum clearance between the seat elements and the gate assembly at all times. However, the spacer blocks extending between the seat assemblies are somewhat difficult to position as pin-type connections are required between the skirts and the spacer blocks in order to position and hold the spacer blocks in proper alignment. The assembly of such spacer blocks in a relatively limited space in the valve body is somewhat difficult.